Portable hard disk drives have become commonplace and are used, for example, with laptops and/or transportable computing platforms and may be used to back up computer systems. Often times the user needs to find out what information is available regarding the hard disk drive (HDD). The user needs to resort to an interface (as illustrated in FIG. 1) provided by an operating system executed by a computer system. In a rack configuration where computer system hardware is stacked, the process of obtaining drive information is even more cumbersome. The interface provided by an operating system requires a separate piece of hardware (e.g. a computer system). That is, the computer system must be turned on and executing at least operating system instructions in order to access the information regarding the HDDs. In many cases, the HDDs can be physically located in a different area away from the computer systems to which the HDDs are to be connected thereby increasing the difficulty and time required to obtain the information.